


Down For The Count

by Rumaan



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Faking Dating AU, Fluff, Humour, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-23 14:19:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8331031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rumaan/pseuds/Rumaan
Summary: Rory can't turn up to Logan's wedding single.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AliceInNeverNeverLand](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliceInNeverNeverLand/gifts).



> For aliceofalonso, for passing her bar exams and also for being the best fandom mate you can ask for! 
> 
> Okay, so I'm a sucker for faking dating AUs and am yet to find one for Literati (if anyone knows of any - please let me know about them!), so I decided to write this with huge amounts of encouragement from @aliceofalonso. This contains huge amounts of fluffy Literati because I have a need to saturate the world with that as well as many tropes as I could throw in!
> 
> Title from Helpless from the Hamilton Soundtrack

I don’t know what to do,” Rory wailed, putting her head down on counter at Luke’s diner.

She didn’t know what she had been thinking when she had ticked the ‘plus one’ box on the RSVP for Logan’s wedding. She and Logan weren’t on bad terms. They had managed to become friends despite her turning down his marriage proposal so she had nothing to prove there. However, there had been the thought of his parents lurking in her mind. Their smug faces as she turned up single to the wedding of the man she had rejected. For Shira Huntzberger, she had never been good enough to marry the precious Huntzberger heir. Then there was Mitchem, who had shattered her dreams at one point and instigated a crisis for her. Rory was sure he would be condescending towards her. He would feel that her current career as a teacher justified his opinion that she didn’t have what it took to be a journalist. It wouldn’t matter that Rory had worked for the Washington Post and then decided that the lifestyle was not for her. He would assume that he had been right all long.

“Why did you say you were bringing someone?” Lorelai asked curiously.

“Because it was a possibility at the time,” she replied and thought about the flirtation she’d had with Steven. It had fizzled out into nothing, but sadly after she had sent back her reply to the wedding invitation. “Besides, who wants to turn up to an ex’s wedding single?”

“Amen to that, sister-friend,” her mom responded.

“It’s a shame Logan met Zach,” Lane piped up. “Otherwise, you could have taken him.”

Rory was grateful that the plastic counter hid her grimace. It was sweet of Lane to offer her husband, but Zach wouldn’t exactly be the kind of date she’d want to bring along to a Huntzberger wedding. He was perfectly sweet, but his slightly spaced out personality wouldn’t exactly impress in those kind of circles.

That was the problem Rory had. Stars Hollow didn’t exactly have an abundance of normal single guys she could rope into going along with her. She loved the town for it’s quirkiness but this was definitely a disadvantage right now. Neither Chilton nor Hartford offered her a solution either. Most of the teachers at Chilton were already married or older and besides she didn’t want to drag her professional life into this. And it wasn’t as if she could (or actually wanted) her grandma to set her up with anyone because the Huntzbergers were part of the Hartford high society set and would hear about it. It would be even worse than Rory turning up single. Besides, Logan had been the best of that bunch and she had already turned him down.

“Ooh I think Lane might be onto something,” her mom said. “You could totally find someone to take.”

“Like who, mom?” she muttered into the plastic surface.

“Hey, how about your nephew?” Lorelai said to someone obviously not Rory.

She lifted her head off the counter to see just who Lorelai was talking to. It was Luke, who frowned and said, “Jess?”

“Yeah,” Lorelai replied, bouncing slightly in her seat.

“Oh, I’m not sure,” he replied dampeningly.

“Why not?” Rory asked curiously. She wasn’t even seriously considering this but Luke’s immediate shut down had her interested.

“Jess isn’t the type to go to a family wedding let alone a complete stranger’s.”

“He’s unbelievably cute though,” Lane interjected.

“You’ve met him?” Rory asked.

“Yeah, he’s passed through a couple of times,” Lane replied.

Rory raised her eyebrows. Luke didn’t talk much about his family. She knew he had a rocky relationship with his sister and that there had been some kind of crisis that had sent him to New York for a couple of weeks when she was in her junior year at Chilton. He’d come back frazzled and irritated but had kept silent on the subject other than to say his sister was a flake. He’d gone back regularly for a couple of years on weekends and stuff.

“He’s the epitome of tall, dark and handsome,” Lorelai said. “Just without the height. So I guess short, dark and handsome. The thing to take away here is that he’s dark and handsome.”

“Being tall isn’t everything,” Rory said, thinking about Dean and how badly that relationship had ended once she’d started Yale.

“He can brood with the best of them too,” Lorelai said before she turned mischievous eyes towards her fiancé. “Definitely not someone you would kick out of bed on a cold morning.”

A spasm of pain crossed Luke’s face at her words and he opened his mouth to say something but Lane beat him to it.

“Or a hot morning for that matter.”

“Hot in more than once sense of the word,” her mom teased.

“Enough!” Luke exclaimed revolted, putting his hands over his ears.

Lorelai and Lane snickered at a job well done.

However, their teasing of Luke had Rory thinking. Turning up with a hot guy wouldn’t be the worst thing at this moment.

“Would he do it for an all-expenses paid vacation to Martha’s Vineyard?” Rory asked.

Looking at her in complete bewilderment, Luke said, “You’re not actually considering this, are you?”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

“Isn’t he trying to get his latest book finished?” Lorelai asked.

“He’s an author?” The prospect of the hot nephew was sounding better and better. “How come no one told me Luke’s nephew is an author. Will I have heard of his books?”

“Yeah, he’s an author and no probably not. He’s only been published through a small independent publishers,” Luke said gruffly. “And I’m not sure Martha’s Vineyard is the kind of setting he looks for in his books.”

“He doesn’t have to set it there. And I know it’s a great place to write. All that peace and solitude. I used to get a lot of articles for the Yale Daily News churned out there.”

“Jess isn’t the peace and quiet type,” Luke said grumpily.

“C’mon Luke. What’s the harm in asking him?” Lorelai asked.

“Yeah Luke,” Lane chimed in. “He can always say no and you get to say ‘I told you so’.”

“Win-win all round,” Lorelai said.

“Well, except for me,” Rory interjected. “I’ll still be dateless for the wedding.” She turned her big blue eyes on Luke and said in a pleading voice, “Please, Luke. Can you ask your hot author nephew if he’ll be my fake boyfriend for a wedding?”

Luke had never been able to resist the Gilmore Girls in action. Add in Lane and he crumbled even quicker. “Alright, I’ll ask him. He’ll say no though.”

Rory grinned as he jerked the coffee pot from the machine and headed out to refill cups. She had missed this kind of fun when she’d been working down in Washington. It was the main reason that she had quit journalism and taken up a temporary teaching position at Chilton.  It gave her the chance to come back to Stars Hollow.

\------------

“Hey Uncle Luke, if you’re calling about that art installation you loved so much last time then I hate to break it to you, but I sold it last week.”

There was a momentary pause on the other end of the line and Jess couldn’t help but smile at what it meant. He loved side tracking Luke every time he called.

“What?! How did that piece of crap sell?” his uncle burst out.

“Dunno. Who can fathom the art world?”

“You if you can sell such junk.”

“Junk? Aww, Uncle Luke, I thought that piece spoke to your soul.”

“How many times have I told you not to call me Uncle Luke? And it was a stolen Costco cart with some junk inside.”

“It was a statement on society. On consumer habits. I thought you, of all people, would approve.”

There was another pause and a deep breath which meant Luke had managed to successfully suppress whatever tirade he’d been about to embark on. It was disappointing. Nothing amused Jess more than a Luke tirade.

“Anyhow, that’s not what I was calling about. How’s-”

“It’s not? I promise not to tell Cosmo. It’d break his heart.”

“Jess, stop-” Luke started to say before he got side tracked again. “Cosmo? The artist is called Cosmo.”

“Yep,” Jess said in a mock perky tone. 

“What kind of name is Cosmo? What kind of parents call their kid Cosmo. No wonder he’s out there making piece of crap art like that cart. The poor kid never stood a chance. He was never going to get a serious job with a name like that.”

Jess’s smile morphed into a rare grin as he listened to his uncle go on. Getting Luke riled up had become a favourite pastime of his over the years. At first, when Luke had turned up to Liz’s shitty New York apartment after Social Services had threatened to remove Jess into their custody, it had been an angry desire to lash out at the world and this corn fed, small town uncle of his who thought he could just fix everything that was wrong in Jess’ life. But then, as Luke had proved that he wasn’t walking out of Jess’ life like every other male had, it had turned into something fonder. A love of hearing his grumpy uncle mouth off about stuff he thought was useless.

Finally, Luke ran out of steam and Jess decided to cut him some slack. “So, what you calling for?”

There was another hesitation, which meant that whatever it was about, Luke was uncomfortable. Probably a favour. Luke hated to rely on people as much as Jess did. It was one of the reasons why Jess had finally accepted his uncle’s presence in his life and had come to love him. Not that he would ever tell Luke that.

“How’s the book going?”

“It’s not. I can’t seem to get enough time away from the office to actually get it finished.”

“Really?” Luke asked and there was an uplift in his tone, which meant that somehow Jess’ struggles to block out time to finish off his third novel was playing into his plan. “Sounds like you need a vacation.”

“Covering for you at the diner is not a vacation.”

“Who said anything about the diner? Ever been to Martha’s Vineyard?”

Jess frowned in surprise. Martha’s Vineyard? The vacation spot of the East Coast elite? “Not sure they let hoodlums from the Lower East Side onto Martha’s Vineyard.”

“I hear it’s a good place for writing,” Luke said, ignoring his comment. “It might be the place you need to finish up your book.”

Suspicion bloomed in Jess’ mind. It was unlike Luke to take such a close interest in the actual workings of his writing. Sure, he was always proud of him. Always wanted to buy a copy of his book and grumbled when Jess gave it to him rather than let him buy it. However, he’d never been active in the mechanics of how the books were produced.

“What do you need? Did you book a vacation in Martha’s Vineyard and now can’t go? Did you promise April a trip there? Because she isn’t going to accept me as substitute. She likes me but not that much.”

“Alright you got me. I need a favour but it’s not along those lines. You remember Lorelai?”

Jess rolled his eyes. “Tall with blue eyes and a coffee habit that shouldn’t be humanly possible? Talks faster than the speed of light? Somehow engaged to your sorry ass? Yeah, I know Lorelai.”

“Well, it’s do with her daughter, Rory. You see, she’s been invited to a wedding up there. Her ex-boyfriend’s wedding and she needs a date.”

Jess’ grin re-emerged. “Are you pimping me out, Uncle Luke?” he asked in a faux outraged voice. “Me? The only son of your only sister and you’re trying to rent me out like a gigolo. Does Liz know you’re doing this? Does _Lorelai_?”

“You know what? Forget it,” Luke grumbled. “I don’t need this aggravation.”

“Aww don’t give up that easily. Maybe you’re on to something. This writing gig isn’t going to gain me a fortune. Maybe high end prostitution could. Lorelai’s from money, right? Her daughter can probably pay a pretty penny.”

“Listen here. Rory is not the kind of girl who needs a…an…a…-”

“Rent boy?” Jess not so helpfully supplied.

“An escort!” Luke snapped. “She’s a very smart, very pretty young woman and anyone would be lucky to be her date.”

“So why hasn’t she got one?”

“Because she hasn’t and for some reason, Lorelai suggested you. I told her it wasn’t a good idea. That you wouldn’t-”

“Alright. I’ll do it,” Jess found himself saying. He wasn’t too sure why. Possibly because he didn’t want Luke to finish whatever unflattering comment he was about to make about him. Maybe because Lorelai, who spoke about her daughter as if she was the best person ever to grace the earth, had suggested him of all people. But also because Jess had been curious about Rory Gilmore the few times he’d been in Stars Hollow. Despite, not having lived there for a good few years, she was still the town’s favourite daughter. You couldn’t go anywhere with Luke without Rory being brought up. People asked about her with the kind of fond smiles that no one had ever used when speaking about him. He’d always wondered if the person would live up to the perfect image.

“You’ll do it?”

“Yep.”

“Why?” Luke asked in a suspicious tone.

“Why not. I’ll be helping out Lorelai’s kid, which means I’ll be helping you out. And like you said, Martha’s Vineyard might give me time to finish the last couple of chapters of this book.”

“You do realise it’s a wedding right? You’ll have to wear a suit. You’ll be expected to attend lunches and mixers. In fact, I’m not sure you’ll even get time to write.”

Jess couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. “Are you trying to talk me out of it now?”

“Yes…no…I don’t know!” Luke exclaimed clearly flustered. “I just didn’t expect you to agree.”

“Well I am. I really do need to get this book finished. My publishers are getting antsy about the possibility of me failing to make the deadline.”

“Publishers? You’re not publishing with Truncheon this time?”

“No. Chris and Matt are adamant that this is the book that will be my breakthrough and they hawked the first five chapters around various contacts. I got an offer. It’s more money than my other two books combined.”

“That’s great, Jess. You think getting away might help you finish?”

“Maybe. It’s worth a shot, right? I don’t want to blow my big break and get a rep for being unable to stick to a deadline. I’m not exactly George RR Martin to get away with that.”

“I’ll tell Rory you said you’ll do it. Can I give her your number?”

“Yeah. If I’m going to pretend to be her date it’s probably a good idea to actually talk to her.”

\--------------

 _Oh God, he really_ is _hot_ , was all she could think when she peered through the window of Luke’s Diner.

It was one thing to hear about it from her mom and Lane – especially when she wasn’t sure if they were just teasing Luke or not. She’d spoken to him on the phone briefly and she’d thought he had an attractive voice, but to see him in the actual flesh was something else.

He was only a couple of inches taller than her, but he had the kind of intensely dark colouring that romance heroes could boast of. He was smirking at something Luke was saying and it gave him the kind of handsomely roguish air that made her knees go a little weak. She wasn’t prepared for him to be this gorgeous, but he totally was.

Ducking back out of sight, Rory placed a call to Lane. “He’s too hot,” she said panicked.

“What?” Lane asked in confusion.

“Jess!” she exclaimed. “He’s too hot.”

There was a snort of amusement down the line. “You know that’s the very opposite of a problem, right?”

“No, it’s not! I was okay when I was picturing him as moderately cute, but he’s unbelievably cute and I am not prepared!”

“Rory,” Lane said soothingly. “You’re taking him as a fake date to your ex’s wedding. What would be the point if he wasn’t gorgeous? He needs to look better than Logan so everyone thinks you upgraded.”

“I don’t know,” she said, her tone a little frantic. “I’m just not ready for this.”

“Well, get prepared, girl, as tomorrow morning the pair of you are driving to Martha’s Vineyard as a couple.”

“Oh God!”

“It’s not like you’ve never had contact with him,” Lane said reasonably.

“One short phone call and a couple of emails! That’s about as impersonal as it gets.”

“Just focus on the endgame, Rory. He wants to go somewhere quiet to finish his book and you need a date to Logan’s wedding. You’re helping each other out, that’s it.”

Rory took a deep breath. “Just helping each other out. I can do this.”

“Of course you can. Now go get him, tiger!”

Putting her phone back in her purse, Rory wiped her sweaty palms down her jeans. It was too late to find a less attractive and therefore less intimidating date by now, so she had better go and meet the impossibly hot Jess.

 _You can do this,_ she chanted to herself as she pushed open the door to the diner.

“Rory!” Luke called out. “Need a coffee?”

“Am I my mother’s daughter?”

Luke rolled his eyes but grabbed a mug and turned to fill it with coffee for her. Knowing that she couldn’t put off the inevitable, Rory turned to face her fake date.

She put on a bright and breezy smile and said, “Hi. I’m Rory. I wanted to thank you for doing this. It’s weird right? Also weird that you’re Luke’s nephew and I’ve never met you. I’ve heard a lot about you, but somehow you always seem to come to Stars Hollow when I’m not here, which is weird because I live here again now and I came home a lot when I was at Yale. Not so much when I was living down in Washington, but then again, it’s hard to do that when you’re trying to hold down a job at newspaper. Maybe that’s one of the reasons it didn’t stick as a career. I didn’t realise just how much I’d miss home. No one told me you were an author though, which is weird because I love reading and it’s something that probably should have come up.”

She finally managed to tail off and closed her eyes for an anguished second. Just how many times had she used weird in the past minute? To someone who wrote for a living too! She hated how she babbled when she was nervous. It was a horrible habit that was bad enough in front of people she knew.

He bit back an obvious smile, still managed to look amused and said, “Hi.”

“I…er…talk alot when I’m nervous.”

“I see.”

Luke, who it seemed wanted to give them some time to introduce themselves, came over with her coffee then and said, “Why don’t the pair of you talk upstairs. Kirk’s due in soon and I can see Miss Patty and Babette crossing the square in this direction.”

Keen to avoid the kind of gossip that could arise from those three, Rory rapidly agreed and hastily picked up her cup of coffee and ducked behind the curtain to Luke’s old living quarters.

It was only once she was inside the small apartment that she realised that there were no distractions here. Her focus was going to be all on Jess.

“Keen to avoid the rumour mill?” he asked, leaning against the kitchen cabinets.

“God, yes,” she said with a small shudder. “They’d have a field day with this kind of news. Miss Patty would take it as an excuse to hawk my picture around with her.”

“What?”

“She did that once to my mom. Decided to keep a picture of her in her purse so she could show it to any eligible men that came her way.”

“Huh,” Jess said. “This town is weirder than I thought.”

“It culminated in three of them turning up to bid on her basket for a charity auction. She had to run to Luke to save her.”

“Uncle Luke bid on a basket? Now that I would have paid to see.”

“Fifty dollars for a Slim Jim and two stale poptarts.”

That got a smile from him which mesmerised Rory. “I’ve always managed to miss these crazy town events. Luke made that seem like a good thing, but now I’m wondering if it wasn’t just self-preservation.”

“Luke’s canny. He manages to stay away from most of it.”

“Glad to hear he’s living up to those Danes genes.”

Silence fell between them and she shuffled awkwardly. “So,” she said. “I’m not sure I thanked you for doing this.”

“You did. Just now downstairs in fact.”

“Oh yeah, right. Yeah.”

He gave her an amused smile. “You could tell me a little more about this wedding. Like why you’re going to an ex’s wedding?”

“We were together for a couple of years and managed to remain friends,” she said. People always found it strange how she and Logan had built a friendship out of the rejected proposal. Logan as a person had never been a problem. It was always that she and Logan as a long term relationship wasn’t what she wanted.

“So why the subterfuge?”

“His family. They never liked me. Thought I wasn’t good enough for their precious heir and I don’t want to go without a date. It will feel as if they were right about me.”

Looking shyly at him, Rory was pleased to see that all he gave her was a small nod of understanding. She had told him that stuff because he needed to know if he was going to pretend to be her date, but she didn’t want any pity either. Refusing to turn up dateless wasn’t the same as being unable to get a date. It was just an unfortunate circumstance.

“So the family is wealthy right?”

“Yeah, seriously wealthy. The dad is Mitchem Huntzberger.”

“The newspaper tycoon?” Jess asked, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Yeah.”

“Always thought he looked like a jerk. It’s nice to get confirmation.”

Rory smiled at that.

\----------

The drive up to Martha’s Vineyard was uneventful. They made a couple of coffee stops because Rory refused to be in a car for over three hours without the necessary caffeine or snacks. Jess said nothing but looked amused at her diet of coffee and red vines.

The wedding was taking place on the Huntzberger Estate, but the main house and the beach house were reserved for family only. Rory and Jess would be staying at one of the three hotels the Huntzberger’s had booked for the wedding. The smallest and furthest one away from the Estate, which was meant to be an insult to Rory, but she actually preferred. She didn’t want to be in the main social mix and the quiet Inn that appeared to be housing the guest list’s riff raff was secluded and very pretty, sitting overlooking a small bay.

When they were shown into their room, Jess gave a low whistle and said, “Nice to see how the other half lives.”

Rory was surprised. It was a beautiful room boasting an antique wooden canopied queen bed and fireplace. The Proprietor oversaw their bags being dropped off and said, “This is our best room. The Groom was insistent that you be given it. Through the doorway there is the bathroom and through those French doors is a private porch that houses a hot tub.”

“It’s stunning. Thank you,” Rory replied.

She struggled to pay attention to rest of the Proprietor’s spiel about services available as she took in just how romantic the room was. She should have seen this coming, but there was only one queen sized bed in the room and the sofa was a dainty Victorian antique that wouldn’t be comfortable for either of them to sleep on. Of course, she probably could ask for a trundle bed, but she shrank from such a request, especially knowing that Logan had personally requested this room for her. God, she was going to have to share a bed with Jess!

 _I hope he’s a snuggler_ , she thought before she could shut the idea down. Sneaking a look at him out the corner of her eye, she knew that it wouldn’t exactly be a hardship to share a bed with him and that was the trouble.

“So there’s only one bed,” she said obviously once they were alone again but left off that the bed was incredibly romantic too.

“Huh,” Jess replied. “So there is.”

“Are you okay sharing or do you want me to ask for a trundle?”

He went and lay down on one side of the bed. “Seems big enough for us to share and I promise not to jump you. Uncle Luke would kill me.”

“I didn’t mean it like-” she started to say in a flustered tone when she noticed the smirk. So she chucked a cushion at him and said, “Jerk.”

Looking around the room, Rory noticed a desk tucked away under a window. It was Victorian, too, matching the theme of the room. It didn’t look like the kind of place someone like Jess Mariano would complete a book. Especially the kind of books that he wrote. As soon as she’d left the diner the morning she'd found out about Jess, she’d gone to Stars Hollow books to see if Andrew happened to stock his books. She had been in luck as he’d had both novels there. She’d bought them, not necessarily expecting to enjoy them, but by the end of the first chapter of _The Subsect_ she had been gripped. He wasn’t just a good writer, but a great writer. There had been a freshness to his words that she appreciated after working so long in the journalism industry.

“Think you’ll be able to write in here?”

He shrugged. “I spotted a picnic table at the end of the garden, overlooking the ocean. It looked promising.”

She smiled. “You like to write outdoors.”

“Yeah, more than inside to be honest. I blame it on how much time I spent reading in Washington Square Park as a kid.”

“I’ve always needed a desk,” she said. “When I worked in journalism.”

“My life was never sedentary enough to accumulate a desk. We moved around a lot and I got used to being outdoors more than indoors.”

Rory was sure there was a deeper story to that. She knew from the few things Luke had dropped in conversation about his family that there had been a lot trouble. Plus, there had been the emergency visits Luke had undertaken for a couple of years. When she had finally met Liz, she had expected someone a lot harder that a ditzy hippy who talked about destiny and universal fate. But you didn’t get to be a journalist for the Washington Post without being able to read between the lines, and with Liz you could see some very dark spaces in between those lines. However, she didn’t want to pry into Jess’ background. He was doing her a favour and if she starting asking far too personal questions then he could easily just leave. Worse than turning up dateless was getting ‘dumped’ at your ex’s wedding.

“Looking at the itinerary that’s been handed out, it seems there’s nothing we’re expected to attend until this evening. So you could go check out that writing spot if you want.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jess said, getting up from the bed.

\-----------

If Rory had been asked about things she found attractive in a guy, she would never have put ‘ability to wear a suit well’ very high up her list. Maybe because Logan had usually been smart, so seeing him dressed up was never particularly ground breaking and Dean had always vaguely looked like he was playing dress up when he wore a suit. But when she left the bathroom where she had been sorting out her make-up and saw Jess suited up she stuttered a little in her heels and had to grip onto the doorframe for a moment. For someone who wore casual so well it really wasn’t fair that he looked so good in a suit.

While she tried to catch her breath, he gave her a quick once over and said, “You look beautiful.”

“Thanks,” she said. “You, too.”

“Huh. Not sure anyone’s called me beautiful before.”

Giving him an unimpressed look, she replied, “I doubt that. You know you got blessed with good genes.”

He gave her a roguish smile. “Are you saying I’m hot?”

Picking up her clutch bag, she punched him lightly on the arm. “I have eyes.”

“Hey,” he protested. “Don’t damage the goods.”

“The cab’s waiting.”

The infuriating smirk stayed on his lips for the short cab journey to the Huntzberger Estate. The drive up to the main house was long and lit with lanterns. Rory could feel her shoulders hunching as they got closer to the venue.

“Hey,” Jess said, his hand reaching out to touch hers, his thumb stroked soothingly over her knuckles. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said, her voice a little strangled. “It’s just weird being here again. I’m not looking forward to the scrutiny.”

“Why did you say you’d come?” he asked curiously.

“I didn’t think it would affect me, to be honest,” she replied, turning to face him. “And I don’t have a problem with Logan. He’s become a friend and I wanted to support him. Show him that I’m happy for him. I just didn’t really think about how it would feel coming to his wedding.”

Jess nodded at her words. “Can’t say I really get it. If any of my exes have gotten married, I’ve never had an invite and I doubt I’d go if I did.”

“Jess Mariano; the heartbreaker,” she said, lightly.

He grinned a little. “Oh, their hearts would’ve had to be engaged for me to break them.”

She narrowed her eyes a little. “Not even one serious relationship?”

He shrugged, withdrew his hand and turned to look out the window. “I was never really in a good place for one.”

It was stated it a matter-of-fact tone that had her frowning slightly. “But now?”

“I’m the best I’ve probably ever been,” he admitted, turning back towards her.

There was an urge to push for more, but Rory repressed it. After all, she didn’t know Jess well enough to demand answers or his life story. She wasn’t sure if he was aware that she knew the basic stuff that she did.

So instead, she gave him a small smile and said, unnecessarily as the car came to halt, “We’re here!”

“Jeez!” Jess exclaimed, as he got out the cab and took in the blaze of lights and flowers that were pouring out of the house. “Is he marrying into a royal family?”

Rory snorted. “It’s the union of Connecticut royalty.”

“After you,” he said, putting his hand on the small of her back.

The warmth of his touch radiated out and allowed the tension in her shoulders to dissipate somewhat.

\-------------

Rory groaned as she toed off her high heels and flopped backwards onto the bed. “Did I tell you that you’re my hero?”

“Huh,” Jess said amused. “Not sure I’ve been called that before.”

“That was bad, right?”

“Oh yeah. So bad.”

“And to think I could have been at the centre of that rigmarole.”

“What? Logan proposed to you?”

“Yep. When I graduated Yale. Never have I been more grateful that I said no than tonight.”

“No desire to play the high society bride?”

She sat back up and grimaced. “That was the stuff of nightmares. And it was only the pre-wedding dinner. Imagine how bad the day after tomorrow is going to be.”

The party had been the kind of thing Rory dreaded. All champagne, pearls and false smiles. It had flung her right back into memories of her brief stint away from Yale when she had attended these kind of events daily. She had never really understood her mom’s extreme antipathy to that lifestyle until she had found herself consumed by it during those horrible six months. By the end, she had felt like she was drowning in a sea of expectations and duties and the remembrance of how stifling it had been was a major factor in her turning Logan’s proposal down.

“So what’s on the agenda for tomorrow?” Jess asked, coming to sit next to her. His jacket and tie were removed and his shirt was unbuttoned and hung open over an undershirt that clung nicely to his chest. He’d also run a hand through his hair, messing it up. He looked deliciously dishevelled.

Rory quickly adverted her eyes. She was already in sensory overload from the little touches they’d shared through the evening. The way he had held her hand to make it through the throngs of people and how he’d casually slung his arm around her waist when the Huntzbergers had come over to greet her in full condescending glory. It had been a reminder of just how much she missed being in an actual relationship where affectionate touches were a daily occurrence and also how attracted she was to Jess, which really wasn’t very helpful considering he was pretending to date her as a favour.

“A luncheon, but thankfully that’s it. There’s a good block of time you can work on your book for. How was the spot you picked out earlier?”

“Great. I got some stuff written already.”

“Impressive,” she replied.

“I know how the book is ending. I just haven’t been able to block out the appropriate time to get it written. I keep getting distracted by the demands of the day job.”

“The perils of being a writer!”

“What about you? Any novelist aims yourself? I know from Andrew that you’ve kept his bookshop afloat all these years.”

She grinned delightedly. “Really? He said that?”

“Yeah, you pay his bills. Apparently he can afford a holiday when I come through.”

She knocked into his shoulder. “Trying to give me a run for my money as who owns the most books?”

“I run a publishing house. I win by default,” he said with a teasing smile. “But you’ve side-stepped my question. With a certain amount of skill I admire.”

“Nah. Creative writing was never for me. I always wanted to be a journalist.”

“But you’re teaching now, right?”

“Yeah,” she said, looking down at where her hands were fiddling with the skirt of her dress. “By the time I got onto a big newspaper, I found I didn’t enjoy it. I’d spent my whole life aiming to get there and when I did,” she broke off and shrugged. “I don’t know. It just wasn’t what I actually wanted.”

Jess nudged her shoulder back. “At least you didn’t stick with it just because that’s what you thought you should. Do you like teaching?”

“Yeah,” she said with a smile. “It’s strange to be back at my old prep school, but I like it.”

“Good. This world needs more good teachers. Maybe then I would’ve graduated high school.”

Rory gaped at him. “You didn’t graduate?”

His smile turned a little bitter. “Nope. I’m not good with all those standardised tests and active participation. I just wanted to sit at the back of the class and read.”

“You still came good though.”

“Yeah. Still not sure quite how that happened. I think Matt and Chris just took pity on me and published my first book.”

“No. It’s a good book. Both your novels are.”

“You’ve read them?”

“Yeah, once Luke mentioned you were a writer, I went out and brought them. Andrew stocks them.”

He bent his head a little and she could see a shier smile on his face. “Thanks. I still think every copy of _The Subsect_ should be burned. If I could write it again, I’d only keep the title.”

“You’re wrong,” she said emphatically. “It might not have the polish of your next novel, but there was an emotion in it that gripped me.”

Rory was surprised to see that he couldn’t meet her gaze. It would have amused her if she didn’t think there could be a deeper reason for that; Jess Mariano was unused to praise and was uncomfortable with it. Her suspicions were confirmed when he rose from the bed and said, “Do you mind if I grab a shower?”

“No, go for it.”

She used the time he was in there to get out of her dress and change into her pyjamas. When he came out, she tried not to gulp at the fact that he was just wearing pyjama bottoms and his hair curled damply around his head.

 _This is not the time to gain a crush_ , she told herself severely and fled into the bathroom to remove her make up.

She had composed herself a little when she came out but deliberately didn’t look at the bed where he was reading.

“Hope you don’t mind but I took the right side.”

“Nope,” she said with a studied nonchalance that she hoped she was pulling off. “Either side is good for me.”

She slid under the covers and picked up her own book.

“What you reading?” he asked.

“ _Bring Up the Bodies_.”

“The sequel to _Wolf Hall_?”

“Yeah. I didn’t peg you as a historical fiction type.”

He shrugged. “I’ll read anything if it’s good.”

“Jane Austen?”

“Yep.”

Rory narrowed her eyes. She had yet to meet a man who read Jane Austen for reasons other than trying to impress a girl. “Favourite Austen book?”

“ _Persuasion_ ,” he said with a smug smile.

“Okay, I believe you. No one says _Persuasion_ if they haven’t truly read Jane Austen.”

“No one ever tell you not to judge a book by it’s cover?”

She whacked him on the arm with her book. “Ha ha! Very funny.”

They descended into a comfortable silence as they both read. Rory couldn’t help but smile at the development. She had never found someone who was just happy to sit next to her and read. It made the whole bed sharing thing a lot less awkward than it could have been.

\--------------

That didn’t mean it wasn’t awkward when she woke up the next morning with her head cushioned on Jess’ chest and their legs intertwined under the covers.

She revelled in how nice it felt for a tiny moment but then began to panic a little at the implications. She really didn’t want him to wake up when she was still curled up against him as she could already feel herself developing a crush on Jess and she didn’t need any further complications like snuggling. It was too tempting to completely immerse herself into the lie of the weekend and she couldn’t afford to mess this up. Jess was Luke’s nephew. He’d be at Lorelai and Luke’s wedding. She would have to see him again. So, she tried to extricate herself from his arms.

However, her attempts to break free were thwarted when his arm tightened around her waist and he sleepy kissed the top of her head. She was faced with the decision of staying where she was or waking him up so she could get free. In the end, temptation won out. With a mental shrug, she decided to give up and just enjoy the moment. Closing her eyes, she relaxed back against him, buried her head under his chin, and relished just how nice it felt to be in his arms. What did it matter really? If she played it cool then no doubt he would, too. It was just some harmless cuddling with a hot guy.

 _Liar,_ a voice in her head said that she quickly dismissed. She was going to stop worrying and live a little. See where that took her.

He stirred a while later, at first doing nothing but rub his thumb softly in circles on the small of her back. Then he seemed to wake up and realise just what was going on and she felt his shoulders tense under her cheek.

“Good morning,” she said, not bothering to hide that she was already awake.

“Hey,” he replied a little huskily and then added awkwardly, “Er…sorry about this.”

“I tried to escape but you appear to have confused me with your teddy bear.”

His chest rumbled with laughter. “You seem really upset about that.”

“Oh devastated,” she said cheerily then leaned over to grab her cell phone. “We still have an hour of breakfast left. I’m just going to shower.”

That seemed to set the tone for the day. They settled into an easy but flirty comradery that did nothing to stem the gigantic crush Rory was developing. He took her hand as they went down to breakfast and they talked books as they ate pancakes and drank coffee, losing track of time until a staff member apologetically asked them to leave.

“I meant to try and get some writing done this morning,” Jess said ruefully, as he looked at his watch. If they were going to make the luncheon then they needed to start getting ready.

Throwing caution to the wind, Rory shot him a flirtatious look and said teasingly, “I guess I’m just too distracting.”

“You’re something alright,” he said with a small smile. There was heat in his eyes, however, that caused butterflies to erupt in her stomach. If they didn’t make out at some point then she was going to be sorely disappointed.

Jess grimaced at the slacks, shirt and blazer that hung in the closet, all neatly pressed, ready for the afternoon. “I really should be holding this against you. I hate dressing up in these kinds of clothes.”

“Why did you agree?” Rory asked curiously. “It’s not like you had ever met me before.”

He shrugged. “Luke asked me to. Luke doesn’t for anything and I figured it was something I could do to pay him back for all the help he gave me. Plus, it meant I had the opportunity to meet the Town Princess.”

“Princess?” she said, putting her hands on her hips in mock outrage.

“Yep. The infamous Rory Gilmore. I hear about you every time I pass through Stars Hollow.”

His words made her smile. Even though she hadn’t been properly based in Stars Hollow for years – well until recently – it always remained home for her. She always planned to come back and live there. If she got married, it was definitely where she wanted to raise her kids. Perhaps that was another reason why she had turned Logan down. Even if they had settled in Connecticut it would have been Hartford over Stars Hollow.

“It’s home. I missed it every day I was away,” she said softly.

The teasing light in Jess’ eyes dimmed a little and he looked away. “Yeah. I don’t really get that.”

“There’s nowhere you call home?”

“New York, I guess,” he said, subdued. “But I don’t miss living there.”

She wanted to give him a hug, but something held her back. He’d become less monosyllabic the more time they spent together, had started to offer up information about himself to her, and she didn’t want to push that. She could tell it was rare. He was similar to Luke in that way; private and introverted. She got the feeling that he didn’t care if he had a ton of friends or was the centre of attention. He was more about connections and she knew that there was one between the two of them. It had anticipation fizzing through her body.

“You want to change in the bathroom or here?” she asked lightly.

\--------------

“How do you stand these things?” Jess murmured into her ear.

“Practice,” she whispered back.

Rory’s feet were aching from standing around the patio in heels. She was grateful for the arm that Jess had around her waist, his hand splayed warmly over her hip and giving her the support her flagging energy needed. She leaned a little closer into him and said, “I reckon we can make a break for it in twenty minutes.”

“Rory!” Logan called out to her. “It’s a madhouse here and I haven’t had an opportunity to say more than hi to you yet this weekend.”

“Logan,” she said smiling warmly. “Where’s Serena?”

“Oh, off somewhere with Honor and the rest of the bridesmaids. Apparently they needed bridal party bonding time. Got them out of this shindig early so I can’t blame them. How are you holding up?”

“Well. This is all really lovely. We’re having a great time,” she said somewhat lamely.

Logan eyed her knowingly. “Yeah, I can see this being right up your alley. How about you, Jess?”

“It’s enlightening,” Jess said dryly.

“So how did you two meet? I didn’t realise you were in a relationship, Ace, until you ticked the plus one box.”

“Keeping tabs on me?”

“Emily and Richard. I always ask after you when I see them. They didn’t mention anything about you and Jess.”

“It’s still quite new,” Rory said, annoyed that she hadn’t thought about Logan seeing her grandparents occasionally. Jess tightened his arm around her waist as if aware that she could use a little more support in this conversation that he wasn’t really a part of.

“So what do you do, Jess?”

“I work in publishing-”

“He’s a writer-”

They both said at the same time before looking at each other and tailing off.

“So which one is it?” Logan asked, amused.

“Both,” Jess replied. “I work at a small independent publishers and I’ve had a couple of novels published.”

“Anything I’ve heard of?”

“I doubt it,” Jess said. “They didn’t go mainstream or anything. We published them in-house.”

“Oh,” Logan said, and Rory narrowed her eyes as she could see her ex-boyfriend dismissing Jess in that off-hand manner he could have with those who didn’t move in his circles. Logan didn’t mean to be a snob, but he was towards those who hadn’t been born with the same privileges he was. He didn’t always understand that not everyone had a trust fund or a famous last name to get them second or third chances in life.

“Luke told me that your next book had picked up by mainstream publishers,” Rory said, keen to highlight Jess’ success.

Jess shrugged. “Yeah. We’ll see how that goes.”

“It’ll go great. You’re such a good writer,” Rory said supportively.

“So I should be looking out for the name then?” Logan asked.

“Perhaps,” Jess supplied unhelpfully, obviously wanting the conversation dropped.

Logan turned back towards Rory. “How’s Lorelai?”

“She’s good. Gearing up for her own wedding.”

“Your mom’s getting married?”

“Yeah,” Rory said happily with a grin. “She and Luke finally seem to be making it work.”

Jess snorted. “Those crazy kids sure took their time.”

“So you haven’t met the grandparents but you know Luke?” Logan asked, confused.

“Yeah. Jess met mom before he met me,” Rory said and then grinned as Logan looked even more baffled. “Jess is Luke’s nephew.”

“Oh,” Logan said but before he could elaborate, someone called him and he gave them an apologetic smile and added, “It’s great to see you again, Ace. Hopefully we can catch up next time. Nice to meet you properly, Jess.”

“So, Ace?” Jess asked with a quirk of an eyebrow.

She rolled her eyes. “Logan’s called me since we first met because I berated him for not taking his job on the Yale Daily News seriously.”

“Daddy make him work there?”

“Yeah,” she said with a grimace. “It’s a shame because Logan is a good journalist, but with his dad forcing in on him, he refused to ever take it seriously.”

“Is he being groomed to take over the Huntzberger media legacy?”

“He was, but he got out. Does something with computer tech now.”

“Good for him. So can we go now?”

“Yes!”

\----------------

The decisive click of the laptop had Rory looking up from the book she was reading. Jess sat, slumped back on the bench with a pleased look on his face.

“You finished?” she asked hopefully.

They had been out here all afternoon since returning from the luncheon. They’d changed into more comfortable clothes, Rory had brought a blanket and a couple of books, and Jess had brought his laptop and several notepads. Then they’d sat. Jess working while Rory read her book. It was companionable. The type of thing she imagined doing with a long-term boyfriend, not someone she had only spent a couple of days with. She knew it was weird to have settled into this semi-domestic routine with someone so quickly, but it had just clicked with them and she wasn’t going to question it. Was it unusual? Sure, but that didn’t meant it wasn’t worth pursuing.

“Yep,” he said with a smile. “Well the writing anyway. Editing is a bitch, but at least I’ve beaten the first deadline.”

She jumped up from her blanket on the grass and spontaneously threw her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. She didn’t allow herself to dwell on her actions or on the surprised look on his face, but sat next him, her shoulder touching his. “Yay! You finished and now I can feel like I’m not the only one gaining something from this weekend.”

He huffed out a laugh. “Hey, I’m still doing you a favour here.”

“Yeah, yeah, Mariano! You know you wouldn’t have finished if you hadn’t come up here with me.”

“Okay. I’ll concede that.”

“So what are we doing to celebrate?”

“Sleep?”

“C’mon, Jess! You finished a book. A whole _book_! If that doesn’t deserve celebrating then I don’t know what does.”

“You want to go out? Around here?”

Rory wrinkled her nose up as she considered the options. Martha’s Vineyard was stuffy and if they went to a bar or something, they were bound to end up bumping into others from the Huntzberger wedding party, and she really didn’t want that. The thought of seeing Finn or Colin or someone was less than appealing. Plus, then she’d have to share Jess.

“How about Pizza and a movie?”

“In the room?” he asked cautiously.

“In the room,” she agreed.

A smile broke out on his face. “I think I can manage that.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” she teased. “Have you ever eaten Gilmore style?”

“No, but Luke’s told me horror stories. Let me see what you’ve got, Gilmore!”

\------------

“Why did I think it was a good idea to challenge you?” Jess asked, groaning as she offered him a red vine. “How can you seriously eat any more?”

“Cast iron stomach and a great metabolism. Best things I inherited from my mom.”

“You better not puke on me in the night.”

“Please,” she said scornfully. “This is nothing. You should have been there for the Halloween candy blow out in 2009.”

He shuddered. “I don’t want to think about it.”

“It was epic,” she said. “I think we cleaned Doosey’s out of the all the discounted candy and proceeded to eat it all while marathoning Buffy. Luke had to excavate us out of the empty candy wrappers.”

Jess laughed. “Bet that pleased him.”

“We endured a lecture and he cooked us nothing but vegetables for the next three days. Luckily, we hid a stash of Chinese take-out at Lane’s.”

Rory balled up the empty packet of red vines and threw it towards the wastepaper bin in the corner. She missed of course.

“We need to at least tidy this place up in the morning,” Jess remarked, looking at the empty pizza boxes and wrappers lying around the room.

“Signs of a real party.”

“We’re rock and roll,” Jess said sardonically.

“Scoot over,” she said, crawling up to where Jess was lying in the middle of the pillows.

“Can’t move.”

“Then deal with the consequences,” she said, as she burrowed under the blankets and snuggled up next to him.

Jess moved his arm, so she could curl in closer to him and rest her head on his shoulder.

“Liar,” she commented. “You can totally move.”

“It comes and it goes,” he said teasingly.

“Convenient.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Very.”

Rory tried to pay attention to the episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine that they were watching, but she couldn’t concentrate. She wondered where this thing between her and Jess was going. They’d spent the whole day flirting, the casual touches getting more and more frequent until it was hard not to just turn to him and kiss him. She nibbled her lip a little as she debated whether to bring this up with him or not. It was obvious that he was comfortable with her and that this wasn’t usual. She had gleaned as much information as she could from Luke and her mom so she knew that Jess was stand-offish and not someone who would just chill out and cuddle. So whatever was between them, it wasn’t normal for him just as it wasn’t for her. However, if she did bring it up then she risked ruining the flirty vibe they had going for them right now.

In the end Jess took the decision out of her hands. “What are you thinking so hard about?” he asked.

Propping herself up on her elbow, she looked nervously at him. “This. Whatever is happening between us right now. You feel it, too, right? It’s not just me.”

There was a small pause, long enough for Rory to worry that she’d ruined the whole thing before he said, “No, I feel it, too.”

“I don’t want to wait until Mom and Luke’s wedding to see you again,” she confessed, deciding to put herself out there.

“Me neither.”

She smiled in relief then and closed the space between them to kiss him softly. It took him a moment to respond and she pulled back slightly, worried that she had jumped the gun, but he chased her lips with his and cupped her jaw in his hand, holding her still so he could kiss her deeply. The anticipation that had bubbled in her body all day burst, making her limbs heavy with passion as she moved to straddle him. She moaned quietly as the kiss turned dirty and wet and his hands ran hotly up under her shirt. Pressing down closer to him, she allowed all the pent up sexual frustration from the day take charge.

\------------

The alarm bleeped obnoxiously from the bedside table. Rory rolled over and batted an unseeing hand out ineffectively. Swearing as the noise got louder, she blearily opened one eye, snatched up her phone and hit snooze option on the screen.

“How long we got?” Jess asked huskily from beside her.

“Ten minutes,” she replied. “Stupid Logan and his stupid morning wedding.”

He laughed. “Yeah, but think about it, the quicker the wedding goes, the longer we have tonight to enjoy that hot tub we haven’t tried yet.”

“Hmmm…that does have its merits.”

But as Jess rolled away and started to get out of bed, she clutched hold of his arm. “No! Don’t go yet. We still have ten minutes.”

He turned back into the centre of the bed and pulled her close and she closed her eyes happily, and snuggled against his chest dozily. “Ten minutes only,” he warned. “I’m not scrabbling to get to this wedding.”

In the end, it was more like fifteen, but they made it to the wedding in good time. It was a nice service. The kind of thing you’d expect two wealthy families to have. The bridal party was about twenty strong and wedding dress had a train that would rival Princess Diana’s in length, but Logan and Serena looked happy and that’s what counted.

What made the wedding even better was that she could now touch and snuggle into Jess as much as she wanted without feeling like she was breaching any boundaries. She took advantage of this, her hand being in constant contact with his arm or leg or hand. Jess appeared to enjoy this if the amount of kisses he pressed on her forehead or cheek were to be taken into consideration.

Her phone rang just as they stepped out of the Huntzberger ballroom and onto the manicured lawn towards the rose garden where the reception was taking place. It was her mom.

“So did you stop the wedding with a scream of _Logan is mine_?” her mom asked

“Yeah. They had a security team escort me out,” she deadpanned.

Jess gave her a quizzical look. _My mom_ , she mouthed at him and he gave an understanding nod.

“So, how’s it going? You’ve given me hardly any details. Just a few measly texts and one phone call,” Lorelai complained. “Is Jess behaving himself? Are you having to share a bed? Have you had to fake kiss? C’mon I want the gory details.”

“Mom,” she whined, not keen to go into this right in front of him.

“Can I get a picture of the pair of you together at least? I’ll settle for a selfie.”

“If I send you a photo, will you stop nagging?”

“Yep,” Lorelai said in the perky voice of someone who had won.

Jess raised an enquiring eyebrow as she disconnected the call.

“We have to send my mom a selfie.”

“I’m not really the selfie type,” he replied.

“It’s that or face my mom phoning every ten minutes demanding details.”

“Selfie it is.”

Jess took the phone off her and held it out. She pressed close next to him with a cheesy grin she knew Lorelai would appreciate.

When they’d taken a few, Rory thumbed through them to send the best one. “Would it have killed you to smile in just one?”

“Yes.”

“You are such a grump,” she said poking him in the side.

“Send that one,” he said. “It’s the best of the lot.”

“At least you aren’t scowling in that one.”

She attached it to a message that read _‘happy now?’_ and waited for the inevitable response.

Thirty seconds later, her cellphone rang.

“Luke owes me free coffee for a year!” Lorelai exclaimed happily.

“What? Why? And you get free coffee already. I can’t remember the last time you paid for coffee at Luke’s.”

“I told him there was no way you were coming back still fake dating,” her mom crowed.

Rory scoffed. “How can you tell that from a selfie?”

“You have that look.”

“What look?” she asked, rolling her eyes.

“The ‘I spent the night doing pleasurable things with this hottie standing next to me’ look.”

Rory choked and she could hear Luke grumble, “Jeez,” in the background.

“Tell Jess I said hi,” her mom said cheerily as she started to hang up. “Don’t catch the bouquet! You are not getting married before me!”

Jess snagged a glass of champagne off a passing waiter and handed it to her. “You okay?”

“Yeah. My mum and Luke had a bet apparently, which she is now sure she’s won.”

“What kind of bet.”

“That we would come back as a couple.”

“Of course. Because that’s normal,” he said with a small nod of his head.

Her iPhone pinged and she looked to see her mom had tagged her in an Instagram post. She opened it and it was the selfie with the tag _Rory and her new boyfriend_.

She groaned and passed the phone over to Jess, who also groaned. Within the next twenty minutes she was going to have messages from half of Stars Hollow.

“That’s it,” she said martially. “I’m going to catch that bouquet!”

\-----------

Jess watched in amusement as Rory jumped out the car, the bridal bouquet aloft in her hand and barrelled through the door of Luke’s where her mom and Lane were already sitting.

He followed behind at a more sedate pace.

“I told you not to catch that,” Lorelai pouted.

“But then you went and posted things unauthorised on Instagram.”

“You can’t even catch. How did you manage to rig this one?”

Rory turned to grin cheekily at Jess. “I got my boyfriend to distract the other ladies.”

“Crafty,” Lorelai said in approval.

Luke turned to Jess and gave him an enquiring look. “Don’t ask,” he said as he made his way behind the counter to snag a cup of coffee.

“So you and Rory, huh?” Luke asked.

Leaning back against the wall, Jess looked at where Rory sat with her phone out, showing Lorelai and Lane pictures from the wedding already. He hadn’t really expected anyone like her to come crashing into his life and so hadn’t prepared the mental barriers he usually erected. She had taken him by surprise and by the time he’d spent twenty-four hours in her company, he knew that he was a goner.

“Yeah, me and Rory.”

“Good,” Luke said with a nod. “Don’t mess it up.”

As Rory turned to beckon him over, Jess knew that if he screwed this up he would never forgive himself.

 

**Author's Note:**

> You can come find me over on [tumblr](http://rumaan.tumblr.com/). I don't have many Lit fandom friends, so if anyone wants to come and squeal about the new pictures for the revival that were released the other day, then I'm always here for that!


End file.
